Dutch Consumer Group Sues Amazon Over Data Tracking

A consumer-rights group in the Netherlands sued Amazon on Wednesday over its alleged practice of tracking website visitors’ online activity, using recently expanded legal provisions allowing class actions.

The lawsuit, filed in a Dutch court by the Stichting Data Bescherming Nederland, or SDBN, said Amazon is violating the European Union’s privacy law by monitoring visitors to popular websites through cookies, the pieces of code that identify individual browsers to create targeted advertisements, without their permission.